Duke  University  Libraries 

A  tract  for  the 
Conf  Pam  12mo  #565 


A  TRACT  FOR  THE  AKMY. 


DY  \VM.  C.  IIUCK. 


.Alii  V  BACKSLIDER  I 

\)\<\  '  allegiance  to  € 

he  a  christian  i  -.elf. to  the  peoj 

in  church  relath  u?     Did  you  submit  to  the  orcfii  b 
ol  baptism,  and  take  on  vou  the  Kojentrj  vows  of  a  dis 
ciple  of  Christ,  and  of  the  fellowship  of  the  serin's;  and 
have  you  since  alienated  yourself  from  Messiah,  o 
ly  re;  to  the  Savi  or,  violated 

■  :   solemn  lip    of  the 

saints,  made  ll  iates  and  confidents, 

deflected  from  the  path  of  rectitude  and  prac 

tieal  offender  against  the  laws  ©f  Christ,  ami  a  shame- 
less contemner  of  ri  ■#  and  all  good  men?  If 
so,  then  are  you  a  backslider? 

Alas !  3:011  have  forsaken  the  fountain  of  living  waters, 
and  hewn  to  yourself  broken  cisterns  that  can  hold  no 
water  of  life.  Ah!  yrou  have  put  the  Saviour  to  open 
shame  and  cr noted  his  precious  Llood;  wherewith  you 
were  snuctified,  an  unholy  thing  y  8  ur  present 

wicked  course  you<%are,  virtually,  trampling   that  pre 
cious  blood  under  your  impious  feet;     (),  how  can  you 

ipe  the  damnation  of  hell?     Awake,   awake  from 
your 'delusion.     Rouso  yourself  to  a  consci 

•  true  condition,  and  seek  to  recover  yourself  from 
>f  the  devil, 
i  let  us  reason  I 


< 


thus  requite  tho  love  of  God,  who  gave  hi»holy  Son  to 
suffer  and  die  for  you  ?  0,  how  can  you  thus  contemn 
the.  love  and  compassion  of  that  blessed  son  of  God 
who  humbled  himself  to  the  shame  and  agony  of  the 
cross  to  redeem,  you  from  the  penalty  of  God's  violated 
law,  and  to  prepare  for  yon  a  mansion  in  heaven''  Lei 
shame  cover  your  face.  X-et  remorse  seize  upon  your 
guilty  soul,  and  heart-broken  penitence  urge  you  to 
the  foot  of  the  cross  foi  mercy ;  it  may  be  that  your 
case  is  not  hopeless. 

It  may  be,  however,  that  you  never  were  a  truly  con- 
verted soul.  You  may  have  been  deceived,  and  deemed 
yourself  a  christian  when  you  were  not.  You  may 
never  have  had  any  change  of  heart;  and  may  be  now 
only  following  the  natural  prrpensmes  of  your  un*anc- 
tified  and  carnal  heart.  It  may  be  that  you  never  have 
felt  the  evil  ot  an  inherently  corrupt  and  depraved 
heart;  never  realized  the  evil  nature  of  sin  ana  its  of- 
fensivcness  to  God;  nor  the  justice  of  Gt>\  in  your 
condemnation  as  a  sinrer.  You  set  out  merely  to  es- 
cape the  punishment  due  to  sin,  and  felt  no  solicitude 
to  be  delivered  from  sin  itself.  You  dreaded  God's 
wrath  and  sough:  to  avoid  the  penalty  of  bis  violated 
law;  but  you  had  no  love  for  God,  His  holy  character 
nor  his  law.  Yv>.u  were  conscious  that  you  had  acted 
wickedly,  and  supposed  tnat  when  you  had  reformed 
your  life,  and  lived  morally,  lhat  you  were,  a  religious 
p«rsou  ;  but  you  never  realized  that  you  were  inherent' 
ly  depraved,  and  that  your  whole  heart  and  soul  must 
be  renewed  by  the  regenerating  power  of  the  Holy 
Spirit,  before  you  could  love  God  and  exercise  vital- 
faith  in  Christ.  You  neverJplt  that  you  were  so  utterly 
lost  and  helpless,  as  a  sinner,  that  unless  the  righteous- 
ness of  Christ  was  imputed  to  you  by  him,  as  an  act  oi 
pure  grace,  that  you  must  perish  forever;  no,  you  re- 
garded all  vour  sins  to  consist  in  acts,  and  thought  you 
had  a  good  heart ;  that  reformation  was  all  that  was 


necessary,  arid  thai  you  were  able  to  reform  at  any 
time;  and  this  is  all  the  religion  you  havo  ever  baa. 
When,  therefore,  you  made  a  profession  of  religion, 
you  were  as  "  the  sow  that  was  washed  ;  '  and  now  you 
are  as  the  "sow  that  has  returned  to  wallowing  in  the 
mire  again."  The  nature  of  the  animal  was  never 
changed,  only  her  circumstances;  antl  so  it  is  with  you. 
When  you  reformed  ami  made  a  profession  of  religion, 
jou  were  like  the  man  out  of  whom  the  evil  spirit  went ; 
nnd  now  you  are  like  him  after  that  evil  spirit  returned 
with  seven  other  spirts  more  wicked  than  himself.  See 
Mat.,  12  :  43.  Mark  it,  the  evil  spirit  was  not  cast  out 
"nv  a  s'ronger  than  he;  for  had  he  been  cast  out,  he 
could  not  have  returned,  as  to  \vh  own  hcuse,  at  bis 
own  option. 

Though  you  nave  been  thus  deceived  and  misled, 
your  case  nny  not  be  utterly  hopeless.  God  is  gractons, 
and  it  may  be  that  He  will  yet  have  mercy  on  you,  if 
yod  haste  as  a  peuiient  to  Christ.  O,  be  entreated  to 
atop  in  your  downward  course.  No  longer  harden  your 
heart  and  stiffen  your  neck  against  God.  O.  repent  of 
your  sius  aud  seek  to  know  God  and  Jesus  Christ  his 
son  before  it  is  too  late. 

But  it  may  be  that  you  were  really  a  convened. per- 
son, and  have  been  led  away  by  evil  associates  and  the 
corrupting  influences  by  which  you  have  beeU|  sur- 
rounded; so  tnat  you  have  fallen  into  practical  sin, 
have  neglected  prayer,  dishonored  your  saviour  and 
opened  tlie  mouths  of  the  impious  to  reproach  religion 
and  to  blaspheme  the  holy  name  by  which  you  were 
called.  Ah,  you  have  pierced  vour  own  soul  through 
with  many  sorro  «'s  S  0,  my  brother,  I  come  to  call 
you  back  from  your  estrangement— to  recover  you  from 
your  fall.  Will  you  heed  a  brother's  affectionate  coun- 
sel? 0,  think  of  the  height  from  which  you  have 
fallen,  and  tremble  at  your  tolly  and  your  guilt.  Yes, 
you  have  cause  to  repent  in   sackcloth  and  ashes,  in 


view  of  your  impiety  and  ingratitude  to  that  "Saviour 
who  shed  his  blood  for  your  redemption.  O,  how  couM 
you  thus  forsake  that  adorable  and  loving  Savioor? 
How  could  you  turn  your  back  upon  him  who. lived  and 
died  to  save  you  from  the  wrath  to  come  ;  and  who 
sent  his  holy  spirit  to  enlighten  and  sanctify  you,  and 
to  comfort  you  with  hopes  of  a  blessed  immortality  be- 
yond the  grave?  Will  you  still  continue  n  guilty  apos- 
tate from  Christ,  and  by  your  shameful  and  wicked 
course  open  the  Saviour's  wounds  afresh?  il  O,  wan- 
derer, return,  return  and  seek  an  injured  Saviour's 
love/'  If  you  ever  were  a  converted  person,  God  will 
recover  you  from  your  present  estrangement ;  but  O, 
what  stripes  await  you'-*- what  ,b.jtterno?s  of  soul  you 
will  realize — what  scalding  tears'  you  will  shed,  when 
you  are  brought  to  a,  just  sense  of  your  guilty  wander- 
ings from  God,  It  is  said  that  Pet  r  was  always  moved 
to  tears,  in  all  his  after  life,  whenever-  lie  heard  a  cock 
crow,  because  he  was  renniided.  thereby  that  he  hd 
denied  his  Lord  and  Master;  end  so  will  it  be  with  you. 
Your  present  aberrations  will  plant  thorns  in  your  dying 
piilcw.  God  may  graciously  forgive  all  these  si  as,  but 
ii  a  christian  you  can  never  forget  them.  0,  then, 
cease  to  accumulate. sorrows  to  yourself,  and  to  treasure 
np  groans  and,  tear??  for  the  dying  hour.  Jf  you  are 
never  recovered  to  the  love  of  Christ,  then  you  furnish 
indubitable  proof  that  you  have  been  either  a  hypo/rue 
or  a  deceived  person  from  the, beginning ;  and  must  be 
born  again,  or  perish  forever. 

But  perhaps;  my  brother,  God  has  already  restored 
you  to  your  right  mind,  and  you  may  now  be  in  deep 
i.*ony  and  penitence  on  account  ot  your  recent  back- 
alidings.  Your  sins  may  now  rise  up  like  u»oun tains 
before  you,  a;id  seem  emirely  <o  separate  you  from 
God,  0,  you  have  wept  over  your  folly,  and  repented 
of  your  ins,  your  ingratitude,  your  carmiliiy  and 
worldly  ruir.detfness  ;  but  the    Lord   stilt  hides  his  face 


from  you.  You  have  confessed  and  renounced  your 
Fins,  and  at  th"»  merry  seat  plead  for  pardon  ;  but  there 
seems  to  be  no  mercy  for  you.  Your  sins  seem  to  Be 
so  enormous,  so  aggravated,  so  heinous  to  you  and  in 
God  8  sight ;  and  your  present  convictions  so  pungent, 
lhat  von  have  come  to  the  conclusion  that  surely  you 
never  could  have  heen  a  converted  soul.  You  think  a 
converted  person  never  could  have  done  so  hadly  as 
you  h:ive.  Ah,  you  think  that  you  never  left  such  deep 
and  pungent  convictions  he  Tore  ;  aud  this  may  be  so, 
but  still  it  does  not  follow  that  you  rn.iy  not  have  been 
a  truly  converted  person,  before  you  had  so  grossly 
deflected  from  the  law  of  God.  Many,  many  restored 
backsliders  have  I  known,  who  had  come  to  such  con- 
clusions ahout  themselves,  and  sought  re-baptism,  under 
the  impression  that  they  had  been  convened  since  their 
first  baptism.  I  hope  thai  this  little  Tract  will  fall  into 
the  hands  of  such  persons,  as  it  nmy  be  the  means, 
under  God,  of  correcting  their  mistakes,  consequent 
upon  the  appearance  of  things.  1  oiler  the  following 
solution  of  such  ca-es  of  conscience,  that  the  persons 
comerr.ed  may  be  led  to  a  just  conception  of  the  truth, 
and  find  solid  consolation  in  its  hearty  reception.  In  a 
criminal  pro-eeution,  the  attorney  for  the  State  has  the 
rijrht  to  commence  the  development  of  the  case  at  any 
point  he  may  ehoQse,  so- as  to  present  the  entire  case  to 
the  court  and  jury  in  the  clearest  point  of  light  possi- 
ble j  but  at  whatever  point  he  may  choose  to  open  the 
case,  his  object  and  intention  is  to  ful'.v  develop  the 
whole  ca-e,  so  that  the  law  may  be  fully  vindicated  and 
guilt  puuished.  It  must  also  be  understood  that,  Ex- 
ecutive clemency  can  reach  the  case  of  the  coademned 
criminal,  only.  A  criminal  uncondemned  cannot  be 
pardoned.  If  when  fairly  tiied  by  the  laws  of  Ws 
country,  ho  is  not  found  guilty,  he  is  acquitted;  not 
pardoned.  But  if  found  guilty,  and  the  sentence  of 
law  has  been   pronounced  against  him,  the   Executive 


6 


may  issue  a  pardon,  and  arrest  the  execution  of  the 
sentence.  And,  when  thus  pnrdoned,  his  life  can  neve* 
be  jeoparded  again  for  the  same  crimes. 

Now  let  it  be  understood  that,  in  a  gospel  sen^e, 
every  pardoned  sinner  has  been  absolutely,  personally 
and  judicially  tried  by  the  law  of  God,  before  the  high 
court  of  heaven,  for  all  his  crimes  and  offences  against 
the  law  and  the  majesty  of  the  Divine  Government  — 
Moreover,  that  he  was  found  guil'y,  and  that  h»  was 
pardoned,  only  through  the  grace  of  God  in  Christ 
Jesus,  after  he  wa"  fully  convicted  of  the  divine  justice 
in  his  condemnation.  When,  therefore,  he  has  been 
freely  and  graciously  pardoned,  it  is  manifest  that  ^he 
will  nev-^r  be  arrested  again,  under  the  law  of  God,  for 
the  sins  tor  which  he  had  obtaine  1  pardon. 

I  say  that  the  sinner,  in  being  brought  to  Christ, 
under  the  economy  of  the  gospel  pisses  the  ordeal  of 
n  distinct,  definite  and  full  adjudication  of  the  claims  of 
the  law  of  God  upon  him;  and  that  when  pardoned,  he 
never  will  be  brought  to  trial  again,  either  in  this  life 
or  in  the  life  to  corao.  God  brings  a  sinner  into  judg- 
ment but  once,  and  h'13  decisions  are  final  and  unrer 
versable. 

The  sinner  is  arrested  by  the  Holy  Spirit.  The  pro- 
cess of  trial  may  be  opened  at  any  point  in  the  case. 
The  Holy  Spirit  may  first  discover  to  the  sinuer  the 
deep  depravity  of  his  heart,  or  he  may,  first  of  all, 
array  before  him  the  enormity  of  his  life  and  habits. 
It  is  immaerial  at  what  point  in  the  oase  the  investi- 
gation begins  ;  God  intends  (hat  the  sinner  shall  see 
his  whole  case.  His  inherent  and  practical  eins  must 
all  be  arrayed  before  him,  and  he  must  be  brought  to 
^ee  and  fully  concur  in  the  justice  of  hi*  condemnation, 
before  a  pardon  can  issue  in  his  favor.  In  whatever 
way  the  investigation  may  be  opened  or  prosecuted,  this 
fact  must  be  noted,  that  sooner  or  later,  the,  sinner  will 
be  brought  to  regard  his  inherent  corruptions,  bis  innate 


hostility  to  God,  hi^ieart-sins,  as  the^most  flagrant  of 
his  offences;  and  as  requiting,  most  of  all,  the  par- 
doning grace  of  God.  Now,  should  his  natural  and 
inherent  guilt  be  pardoned,  it  ia  most  certain  that  they 
never  will  be  nor  can  be  charged  against  him  again. 
God  never  will  bring  him  into  judgment  for  original 
sin  again. 

Now  mark  it,  backslider.  Should  such  a  pardoned 
sinner  restrain  prayer  and  be  led  off  to  sin — should  he 
backslide  and  dishonor  hi^  profession,  and  reproach 
the  name  of  Christ  by  his  impious  lite,  God  will  bring 
him  back,  either  by  the  wooings  of  special  love  or  by 
the  rod  and  stripes;  and  when  restored  to  his  proper 
mind,  his  sins  of  life,  his  acts  of  disobedience  may  re- 
coil like  a  mountain  weight  upon  his  heart;  and  he  may 
feel  so  deeply  and  pungently  convicted  for  them,  as  to 
be  led  to  fear  that  he  never  knew  the  grace  of  God, 
but  had  been  deceived.  If,  however,  he  will  carefully 
and  prayerfully  examine  the  various  exercises  of  his 
mind  and  the  several  states  of  his  conscience,  he  will 

Eerceive  that,  as  a  backslider,  he  is  not  convicted  for 
is  inherent  sins — the  original  sin  of  his  fallen  nature, 
which  formed  so  prominent  a  part  of  his  first  convic- 
tions. Nor  is  he  convicted  for  any  sin  committed  before 
his  backsliding.  His  present  convictions  refer  only  U> 
the  sins  committed  in  his  recent  deflection  from  the 
path  of  duty.  And  if  he  finds  this  to  be  true,  then  has'' 
he  positive  evidence,  however  pungent  his  conviction 
may  be  thaflne  was  previously  a  renewed  and  pardoned 
sinner ;  and  that  he  is  now  only  being  chastised,  as  a 
son,  to  bringr  him  back  to  his  Heavenly  Father,  from 
whom  he  has  so  deeply  revolted.  God  has  assured  us 
that,  although  He  will  not  urterly  take  away  his  loving 
kindness  from  his  children,  he  will,  nevertheless,  visi* 
their  subsequent  iniquities  with  stripes  and  their  tran 
gressions  with  a  rod.  While,  therefore,  a  sinner  p' 
doned,  has  all  his  sins  "  covered  "  by  that  act  of  gr 


&.CL 


& 


still,  God  as  a  gracious  Father,  visits  their  subsequent 

transgression s  with  convictions  and  correctives,  to  keep 
them  from  the  ways  of  sin,  and  to  ke*p  them  near  his 
own  paternal  side. 

If  a. backslider  is  subsequently  convicted  for  original 
sin  as  well  as  lor  practical  iu'ipiety,  lie  may  take  it  for 
granted  that  he  never  knew  the  pardoning  love  of  God  ; 
Jor  God  never  tries  a  sinner  twice  far  the  name  crime. 

And  now.  my  backsliding  reader,  having  given  you  a 
graphic  outline  of  a  chrbtian's^xporience,  and  a  scrip- 
tural rule,  by  which  you  may  unerringly  determine  the 
state  of  your  soul  and  the  ground  of  your  hope,  let  me 
entreat  you  to  read  it  prayerfully  and  carefully.  And 
may  God  sanctify  these  humble  pages  to  your  recovery 
from  sin,  and  to  your  consolation  in  Christ  the  Kcdcetu- 
er.     Amen. 


Hollinger  Corp. 
PH8.5 


